Source: Supplied.

Leopard Racing’s newly-crowned Moto3 World Champion Danny Kent was well on the pace in his return to Moto2 during testing at Jerez, Spain, setting the fifth fastest time overall across three days.

The Brit’s first attempt at the class with the Tech 3 in 2013 proved difficult on the Mistral 610 frame, but his return with Leopard Racing on the favoured Kalex bike is off to a solid start.

Kent’s best time of 1m42.656s was only three tenths off Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40), who set the fastest time of the three-day test. Even with the positive start Kent is well aware that much work must be done by both he and the Leopard Racing team.

“The first impression after my comeback to the Moto2 category has been very good,” Kent explained. “After a couple of laps I felt like being back home in this class and it took not a long time to set faster lap times than in my Moto2 season in 2013. In the end I was 1.5 seconds faster than before at this track.

“So not only for this I’ve to say that the first feeling with the Kalex bike is really good. In general, it’s a great bike to ride and the support from Kalex we already are receiving is really excellent. However, this was just our first two-day test for the upcoming season so there is still a lot to learn for everyone in the team but also for my side I must working hard to change back my riding style to Moto2 in order to get closer to the front guys.

“Before heading into the two-month winter break it was important to do this two-day test here in Jerez so I can go back home now to start my fitness training with some slightly changes do the program to come back in 2016 well prepared for our first Moto2 campaign.”

Fitness training to adapt his body to the bigger Moto2 machine will be Kent’s main focus during the two-month winter break.